Page 72 of The Rogue

“That is a good start,” he said.

“I was rude, and I was insulting.

“You were both of those things. You alsoneverare those things, so it’s pretty fair.”

“Yeah. Except it isn’t. And I really am sorry. I really am... I am.”

“All right. Good to know.”

“Please don’t be mad at me,” she said. She knew she didn’t really have a right to say that to him. A right to ask it of him.

“Why would I be angry at you?” he said.

“Because I was... really insensitive,” she said.

“So what? I’m fine.”

“You... You’re fine.”

“Did you think that I was stewing over the fact that drunk Rue said something about me being a relentless man-whore? We all know that it’s true. Why should I be mad about that?”

“It just wasn’t the right thing to say,” she said.

“Sure. But you were drunk. I knew you didn’t mean what you were saying. That’s why I sent you to bed.”

“Can we just forget about it?”

“Hell yeah. Let’s forget it. I’m not mad, and I’m not thinking about it anymore.”

“Good.”

She was honestly so relieved. Because she had been out of her mind last night, and if she had ruined her relationship with Justice over a moment of total and complete out-of-character insanity, it would’ve been the worst thing she could think of.

“I think I’m going to watch TV and knit today,” she said. “A little break from my adventure.”

“Great,” he said, sounding relieved. “Dinner tonight, at the main house. Now you’ve seen just about everybody, so you might as well.”

“That is true.”

He smiled. “Don’t worry. Your hangover will have faded by then, and I’m certainly not going to tell anybody.”

“And you’re not mad.”

“Of course I’m not.”

He was fucking livid. He deserved some kind of award for pretending that he had been completely fine witheverything that morning. He had decided when he’d woken up, unreasonably early, and outrageously irritated, that it would do him no good to hold Rue accountable for what had happened last night. In truth, he was madder at himself. For letting his own temper off leash. For getting to the point where he was... saying those things to her, and putting those thoughts in his mind. And it was all still turning around in his head when he got to his brother’s place that night for dinner.

It was freezing, and still, Denver was grilling in the back of the house, his barbecue facing the broad, impressive mountains that flanked Four Corners.

He was drinking a cold beer, and Justice decided to join him.

“We can basically call the big barn done,” Justice said.

That at least was a decent distraction. They had put in a lot of good work today getting the place in order. He understood why Denver wanted to do it. Why Denver had gone out and made money, and invested that money back into the place. It was important to him to do something with the King family name. Justice wasn’t entirely sure he felt the same. But he worked the ranch. In fact, he did that like he did everything else. It was in front of him, so he did it. But he wasn’t sure he really thought the family name could be saved. Possibly because he knew just how dark it was.

“Yeah. Pretty proud. You know, there are things that we’ll never be able to make up for. There are...” Denver’s eyes looked haunted. “There was just a lotof shit that Dad did. It’s why I took Penny in. It’s why...”

“Yeah, I know. It’s why you do a lot of things.”

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